I guess the biggest tip i can give to instructors, is to be able to relate to your students like a friend, maybe try to think of yourselfs more as a co-pilot helping to solve problems, than a flight instructor. Even talking to your student about stuff besides flying might be a good idea, it would really help us to open up and ask questions on things we might be not so sure about.
I had a good example of this during my last trial helicopter lesson. The poor woman seemed terrified! I usually get on well with people, so I chatted as usual, hoping to put her at her ease, but nothing seemed to work. Then when we were due to come back to the field, the tower asked us to hold for some aircraft I couldn't see. I started to orbit, and my student said: "You make it all look so easy. Have you been flying helicopters all your life?" I burst out laughing. I told her I'd only been flying for a few years, that I'd got hooked on helicopters after a trial lesson, and all my friends couldn't decide if I was very brave or totally crazy when I said I wanted to be an instructor. Somehow that broke the ice, and she stopped being scared of me.
BUT....
There's an important lesson for instructors here too. Don't make yourselves out to be demigods or super-human; be modest about your capabilities, encourage open discussion with your students and listen to what they tell you - who knows, you might learn something too. Instructors wearing white cotton shirts, blue pullovers and gold stripes can be really intimidating to inexperienced students. Good instructors don't need physical trappings to prove how good they really are.
I wear the collar and tie, though I draw the line at gold stripes!!!! This is partly because that's what's done at the school I instruct at. But it's also because as a 5ft 2ins rather unimposing looking woman, who doesn't look remotely like anyone's idea of a helicopter pilot, if I dont wear the trappings, everyone thinks I'm the tea lady or a new student.
This does not inspire confidence...and they do feel they're putting their life in my hands after all. But then if I do wear them, some people are scared of me, despite everything I do. So...what's the answer?